Electric brush



v(N0 Model.)

H-PpPRATT. ELECTRIC BRUSHl Patented July 1m 1889...

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY P. PRATT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS..

ELECTRIC BRUSH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 407,115, dated July 16, 1889.

Application tiled March 21, 1889.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, HARRY P. PRATT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric Brushes, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved construction of the kind of brush having a galvanic battery so arranged and supported upon it that the battery-circuit shall be normally open, and closed through the body of the user when taken in the hand and applied to the body. The principle remains the same whatever the form of brush or analogous article in which my invention may be embodied, though I prefer to describe my improvement in detail in connection with a tooth-brush and the peculiar construction of the latter involved, and so illustrate it in the accompanying` drawings, in which- Figure l shows by an enlarged longitudiinal sectional view a tooth-brush provided with my improvement, and Fig. 2 a face view of one of the battery-disks.

A is a tooth-brush, having the bristles B secured in a perforated metal plate r, fastened upon the head portion q of the brush, and having a metallic extension p passing through the neck port-ion n, (which, like the part q, is composed of non-conductingmaterial, as ivory,

bone, or the like,) and terminating in a iianged' metal socket fm. The neck portion fn of the brush is enlarged toward its extremity and hollowed out to receive the iianged socket m, and it terminates in a screw l, to receive one threaded end of a metallic tube or handle C, forming the handle of the brush, and provided at its opposite end with a removable and adjustable metal screw-cap 7c, having a socket il in line, when the cap is in place, with the socket fm.

D is the battery composed of a series of alternating copper, zinc, and felt plates or disks, marked, respectively, e, z, and f, and each having a central opening h and two smaller openings h on 'opposite sides of the center, and the disks are strung in proper order on a rod or tube g, of insulating material, which passes through the openings in the centers of the series of disks, and sup- Serial No. 304,164. (No model.)

ports the latter in the tube or handle C by resting atits opposite ends in the sockets m and fi. The disks are held together by rods or tubes e, of insulating material, passed through the openings h and threaded, Where they extend beyond the ends of the pile, to receive the metallic nuts d, which serve to clamp the disks of the voltaic pile together and to produce metallic connection between the terminal metal disks (respectively zinc and copper) and the capk at the one end and the flange of the socketmatthe opposite end.

The voltaic pile afforded by the disks and 4 their supporting means in the tube orhandle C is readily removable on unscrewing the cap lc, as for the purpose of taking it out to saturate it with the necessary exciting-liquid (as vinegar) and, when desired, reversing its poles.

To use the device, the bristles or non-metallic part corresponding t-herewith (as the block of corrugated felt in another form of tooth-brush) should be moistened, and on being applied to the teeth, with the tube C in the grasp of the hand, the circuit will be closed through the body and the effect of the current exerted upon the teeth.

By inserting the voltaic pile at its positive or negative end iirst into the handle C the current from the acid (positive) pole or that from the alkali (negative) pole may be directed to the teeth, the former serving to alleviate pain and the latter for use in destroying microbes, cleaning, polishing, and the like, and owin g to the non-metallic nature of the bristle portion 11o-disagreeablemetallic tast-e will be experienced in the use of the device as a tooth-brush, and as a hair or flesh brush lthe compactness of the bristles, compared with the wires serving their purpose in metallic brushes, presents a conducting and distributing medium so extensive as to avoid burning of the body by the current.

By directing the positive current to the gums teething may be hastened and the attendant pain alleviated. A

While I have thus mainly confined my description and the illustration to the application of my improvement in the form of a tooth-brush or analogous article, it may, obviously, be applied to other forms of brushes IOO and various toilet and other articles applied by the hand to the body, and through the medium of which it may be desirable to subject certain parts of the body to the effect of a galvanic current. Accordingly I desire to be understood to include as within the spirit of my invention any such appliance provided with my improvement.

'What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. In combination, a brush or the like article and a galvanic battery inclosed in the brush with the elements forming it secured together independently of the inclosure containing them, whereby the battery may be readily removed and rcadj usted with the poles reversed and having one terminal electrically connected with the part ot the article to be applied to the body and the other with the part to be held in the hand, whereby, when the article is used, the circuit shall be closed through the body of the user, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In combination, a brush having its bristles or corresponding portion formed with nonmetallic material secured to metal r and a handle port-ion conductive of electricity, and a galvanic battery inclosed in the handle and having one pole connected therewith and the opposite pole with the conductor fr, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In combination, a brush or the like provided with a hollow handle conductive of electricity and containing a galvanic battery, formed with perforated plates of suitable matori-als, a rod g, extending through the plates and supported at opposite extremities in the opposite ends of the handle, rods e, extending through the plates and having clampnuts (Z on theirl opposite ends holding the plates of the battery together, and a conductor lr, lea-din g to the bristles B or analogous part of the brush and in contact with the nuts d at one end of the battery, those at the opposite end being in cont-act with the handle, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. An electric brush comprising, in combination, a neck portion n, ot insulating material carrying a conductor 0', supporting bristles B or the like and extending through the neck and terminating in a iianged metal socket rn, a hollow metal handle C, secured to the neck ln and provided with a removable metal cap 7:-, and a galvanic battery D in the handle formed with perforated plates of suitable materials, a rod q, extending through the plates and supported at opposite ends in the socket fm and cap 7a, and rods c, extending through the plates and having clamp-nuts (l on their opposite ends holding the plates of the battery together and in contact with the socket m and cap 7c at opposite ends of the battery, the whole being constructed and arranged to operate substantially as described.

HARRY I). PRATT.

In presence of- J. \V. DYRENFORTH, M. J. BOWERS. 

